1. ESR and VAR increase the resistance of steel to fracture. Failure of the steels is accompanied by large absorption of energy and occurs at larger breaking loads than for the original electric steel. 2. The ESR steel is more capable of plastic deformation than the VAR steel under conditions where redistribution of stresses is possible. 3. After tempering at low temperature (high-strength), the VAR steel is characterized by more ductile fracture (σ b T , KC, GC) than the ESR steel and higher resistance to crack propagation, which is probably due to greater microheterogeneity. 4. Independently of the melting procedure, an increase of the carbon content lowers the resistance to failure, while alloying with nickel and molybdenum raises it. 5. Remelting, particularly ESR, substantially increases the energy absorbed in the stage preceding failure, i.e., the opening and growth of the crack to critical size in the presence of stress concentrations and bulk stresses.